TAMPA, Fla. — A Lakeland man has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after prosecutors said he fired shots during a 2020 shootout that killed a 70-year-old grandmother and injured three other people, including a 13-year-old.
Taqiy Lewis, 29, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Mizelle, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.
Lewis pleaded guilty March 2 to possessing a firearm and ammunition as a convicted felon.
Federal prosecutors said the shooting happened Dec. 24, 2020, outside a Lakeland home where the 70-year-old woman, identified in court records as M.C., was outside with her family, including young children.
Around 5:30 p.m., prosecutors said Lewis and others exchanged gunfire outside the home. M.C. was shot twice and died. Three other people were also shot and injured.
More than two years later, on Feb. 9, 2023, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Lakeland police recovered a Kahr CM9 9mm pistol while serving a search warrant in Lakeland during an unrelated investigation.
Prosecutors said forensic testing later connected the gun to the bullets fired in the deadly shooting.
According to court documents, six casings found at the scene, two bullets recovered from the home and a bullet recovered from M.C.’s body were fired from the gun Lewis had possessed.
At the time of the shooting, Lewis had a prior felony conviction and was not allowed to have guns or ammunition, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also said Lewis later got a fake alibi and had the jacket and sandals he wore during the shooting burned in a barrel.
Lewis remains under investigation by state law enforcement in connection with M.C.’s death, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The case was investigated by the ATF, Lakeland Police Department and FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Diego F. Novaes prosecuted the case.
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